hey Jay! thanks for the response. I had actually included a bit of a spiel on the "why" but then decided to keep it short just to see the responses and user experiences first, also with some google searching discovered this other thread basically covering some of the details I was chasing but things have changed a little since 2018.
viewtopic.php?f=152&t=20331&p=191984#p191984dillwishlist sounded like he was using a similar solution.
Background: Essentially I am not a big MacOS user, have had a fair bit of exposure to it but just don't think MacOS has that many advantages (iOS/WatchOS i think are better OS examples in their field). So for me the Mac was a means to an end when I settled on using Indigo after testing all the different Automation software 12-18months back when I decided to migrate away from Vera. Back then it came down to between Homeseer and Indigo and one of the advantages of Homeseer was the ability to run it as VM (and could be very flexible when combined with these
https://shop.homeseer.com/products/z-wa ... 7658503180), but overall I was happier with some features/logic/plugins of Indigo. Also Homeseer prior to the new v4 had a pretty dated interface.
To expand somewhat as well, have a small home lab for various testing/learning/home infrastructure and having a Hypervisor Host is much more useful as an always on power draw. Also being in IT my thoughts always go to having reliable HA (highly available) services and great disaster recovery options especially when you have everyone in the house relying on the automations that just become fully integrated into your life and virtualised environments just make that so much easier.
Final element would be that in recent times VMWare ESXi officially works on a Mac Mini so these make a great little Host especially if you have a couple and can run them in the 1RU Sonnet rack mount (
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/rackmacmini.html), at 25-35watt draw a piece plus say a NAS and a router/switch and you have a very small footprint / quiet home lab with more flexibility and less power draw than a large server. Also means you can run official Mac VM's which you couldn't do on other hardware.
Apologies for the long explanation but just thought it needed the details just to understand it wasn't "just for the sake of it", that there were some distinct advantages. I definitely understand there are some complications though with support/software dev etc so I understand the stance etc.